DC Buyer: Long-Saving 29 Year-Old Looking for Unit Larger Than His Apartment

• April 28th 2010

by Martin Smith

DC Buyer is a series on UrbanTurf where we look at buyers from various demographics and provide available housing options for them in the current DC market. If you are a prospective buyer and would like to be featured in DC Buyer, send an email to editor2010@urbanturf.com. See all of our past DC Buyer articles here.

This week, we’re working with Paul, a 29 year-old electrician. Paul has managed to save nearly $55,000 for a down payment after several years of conservative living in Brookland. He has a good FICO score of 738, which reflects the fact that he carries no balances on credit cards, and also has no student loans. Paul is successful in his field, and was just promoted to a supervisor role where he expects to make about $65,000 per year before bonuses and commissions.

Paul is very open to exploring new neighborhoods and has few limits on what he would consider. His primary objective is that the property should be spacious, as he has grown tired of his cramped apartment. He would also really like something with large windows, lots of natural light, and his only real requirement: no renovations needed at all. Based on his loan approval, Paul is shopping in the $250,000 to $295,000 range. Given Paul's flexibility, the two properties that we found for him are quite different in a number of ways.

The first option for Paul is a top-floor corner one-bedroom co-op at 1875 Mintwood Place NW in Kalorama. Two things make this an attractive unit for Paul. The first is that it has a number of windows that bring a good deal of light into the property. The second is its size. At almost 700 square feet, it also much larger than the apartment where Paul is currently living, and unlike the two-bedroom condo below, it is very centrally located.

The second choice for Paul is actually a two-bedroom, 1.5-bath unit at 5885 Colorado Avenue NW listed for $279,500. As the listing accurately states, the photos look like something right out of Architectural Digest, but of course, they do come with a catch. The building is located at the busy three-way intersection of Georgia Avenue, Missouri Avenue and Colorado Avenue, which is one of the least pedestrian-friendly areas of the city, and is far away from Metro. That being said, this 800 square-foot unit is quite possibly the most apartment per square foot anywhere in the city, and the 20-foot ceilings are tempting. The fact that the unit has been on the market for some time (and has already had two price reductions) might mean that Paul could negotiate the price down a little more.

Given these choices, where should Paul put in his offer?

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc_buyer_long-saving_29_year-old_looking_for_a_unit_larger_than_his_apartme/2019.